CHRISTIANITY
Christian religion is not a certain philosophic system, about which
learned men, trained in metaphysical studies, argue and then either
espouse or reject, according to the opinion each one has formed. It is
faith, established in the souls of men, which ought to be spread to the
many and be maintained in their consciousnesses.

There are truths in Christianity that are above out intellectual
comprehension, incapable of being grasped by the finite mind of man.
Our intellect takes cognizance of them, becomes convinced of their
reality, and testifies about their supernatural existence.

Christianity is a religion of revelation. The Divine reveals
its glory only to those who have been perfected through virtue.
Christianity teaches perfection through virtue and demands that its
followers become holy and perfect. It disapproves of and opposes those
who are under the influence of the imagination. He who is truly perfect
in virtue becomes through Divine help outside the flesh and the world,
and truly enters another, spiritual world; not, however, through the
imagination, but through the effulgence of Divine grace. Without grace,
without revelation, no man, even the most virtuous, can transcend the
flesh and the world.

God reveals Himself to the humble, who live in accordance with virtue.
Those who take up the wings of the imgination attempt the flight of
Ikaros and have same end. Those who harbor fantasies do not pray; for
he that prays lifts his mind and heart towrds God, whereas he that
turns to fantasies diverts himself. Those who are addicted to the
imagination have withdrawn from God's grace and from the realm of
Divine revelation. They have abandoned the heart in which grace is
revealed and have surrendered themselves to the imagination, which is
devoid of all grace. It is only the heart that receives knowledge about
things that are not apprehended by the senses, because God, Who dwells
and moves within it, speaks within it and reveals to it the substance
of things hoped for.

SEEK GOD daily. But seek Him in your
heart, not outside it. And when you find Him, stand with fear and
trembling, like the Cherubim and the Seraphim, for your heart has
become a throne of God. But in order to find God, become humble as dust
before the Lord, for the Lord abhors the proud, whereas He visits those
that are humble in heart, wherefor He says: "To whom will I look, but
to him that is meek and humble in heart?"

THE DIVINE LIGHT illumines the pure heart and the pure
intellect, because these are susceptible to receiving light; whereas
impure hearts and intellects, not being susceptible to receiving
illumination, have an aversion to the light of knowledge, the light of
truth; they like darkness... God loves those who have a pure heart,
listens to their prayers, grants them their requests that lead to
salvation, reveals Himself to them and teaches the mysteries of the
Divine nature.

THE CHURCHThe term
CHURCH, according to the strict Orthodox view, has two meanings, one of
them expressing its doctrinal and religious character, that is, its
inner, peculiarly spiritual essence, and the other expressing its
external character. Thus, according to the Orthodox confession, the
Church is defined in a twofold manner: as a religious institution, and
as a religious community (koinonia).

The definition of the CHURCH as a religious
institution may be formulated thus: The Church is a divine religious
institution of the New Testament, built by our Savior Jesus Christ
through His incarnate Dispensation, established upon faith on the day
of holy Pentecost by the descent of the All-Holy Spirit upon the holy
Disciples and Apostles of the Savior Christ, whom He rendered
instruments of Divine grace for the perpetuation of His work of
redemption. In this institution is entrusted the totality of revealed
truths; in it operates Divine grace through the Mysteries; in it are
regenerated those, who with faith, approach Christ the Savior; in it
has been preserved both the written and the unwritten Apostolic
teaching and tradition.

The definition of the CHURCH as a religious community may be formulated thus: The CHURCH is a society of men united in the
unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.

The right view of the CHURCH is that the CHURCH is
distinguished into the Militant and the Triumphant; and that it is
Militant so long as it struggles against wickedness for the prevalence
of the good, the Triumphant in the heavens, where there dwells the
choir of the Righteous, who struggled and were made perfect in the
faith in God and in virtue.

TRADITION
Sacred TRADITION is the very CHURCH; without the Sacred TRADITION the CHURCH does not exist. Those who deny the
Sacred TRADITON deny the Church and the preaching of the Apostles.
Before the writing of the Holy Scriptures, that is, of the sacred
texts of the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles, and
before they were spread to the churches of the world, the CHURCH was
based on Sacred Tradition....The holy texts are in relation to Sacred
Tradition what the part is to the whole.
The CHURCH Fathers regard Sacred Tradition as the safe guide in
the interpretation of Holy Scripture and absolutely necessary for
understanding the truths contained in the Holy Scripture. The CHURCH
received many traditions from the Apostles... The constitution of the
church services, especially of the Divine Liturgy, the holy Mysteria
themselves and the manner of performing them, certain prayers and other
institutions of the Church go back to the Sacred Tradition of the
Apostles.
In their conferences, the Holy Synods draw not only from Holy
Scriptures, but also from Sacred Tradition as from a pure fount. Thus,
the Seventh Ecumenical Synod says in the 8th Decree: "If one violates
any part of the CHURCH Tradition, either written or unwritten, let him
be anathema."
DISCOVERING GOD It is
evident that unbelief is an evil offspring of an evil heart; for the
guileless and pure heart everywhere discovers God, everywhere discerns
Him, and always unhesitatingly believes in His existence. When the man
of pure heart looks at the World of Nature, that is, at the sky, the
earth, and the sea and at all things in them, and observes the systems
constituting them, the infinite multitude of stars of heaven, the
innumerable multitudes of birds and quadrupeds and every kind of animal
of the earth, the variety of plants on it, the abundance of fish in the
sea, he is immediately amazed and exclaims with the Prophet David: "How
great are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom Thou made them all." Such a man,
impelled by his pure heart, discovers God also in the World of Grace of
the Church, from which the evil man is far removed. The man of pure
heart believes in the Church, admires her spiritual system, discovers
God in the Mysteria, in the heights of the theology, in the light of
the Divine revelations, in the truths of the teachings, in the
commandments of the Law, in the achievements of the Saints, in the very
good deed, in every perfect gift, and in general in the whole of the
creation. Justly then did the Lord say in His Beatitudes of those
possessing purity of the heart: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God."
SELF-KNOWLEDGE He who does not know himself
does not know God, either. And he who does not know God does not know
the truth and the nature of things in general... He who does not know
himself continually sins against God and continually moves farther away
from Him. He who does not know the nature of things and what they truly
are in themselves is powerless to evaluate them according to their
worth and to discriminate between the mean and the precious, the
worthless and the valuable. Wherefore, such a person wears himself out
in the pursuit of vain and trivial things, and is unconcerned about and
indifferent to the things that are eternal and most precious.

Man ought to will to know himself, to know God, and to understand the nature of things as they are in themselves, and this
becomes an image and likeness of God.

MAN Man is a composite being, made up of an
earthly body and celestial soul... The soul is closely united with the
body, yet wholly independent of it.

Man is not only reason but also heart. The powers of these two
centers, mutually assisting one another, render man perfect and teach
him what he could never learn through reason alone. If reason teaches
about the natural world, the heart teaches us about the supernatural
world... Man is perfect when he has developed both his heart and his
intellect. Now the heart is developed through revealed religion

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOULThe
rational soul of man has supernatural, infinite aspirations. If the
rational soul were dependent upon the body and died together with the
body, it should necessarily submit to the body and follow it in all its
appetites. Independence would have been contrary both to the laws of
nature and to reason, because it disturbs the harmony between the body
and the soul. As dependent upon the body it should submit to the body
and follow in all its appetites and desires, whereas, on the contrary,
the soul masters the body, imposes its will upon the body. The soul
subjugates and curbs the appetites and passions of the body, and
directs them as it (the soul) wills. This phenomenon comes to the
attention of every rational man; and whoever is conscious of his own
rational soul is conscious of the souls's mastery over the body.

The mastery of the soul over the body is proved by the obedience
of the body when it is being led with self-denial to sacrifice for the
sake of the abstract ideas of the soul. The domination by the soul for
prevalence of its principles, ideas, and views would have been entirely
incomprehensible if the soul died together with the body. But a mortal
soul would never have risen to such a height, would never have
condemned itself to death along with the body for the prevalence of
abstract ideas that lacked meaning, since no noble idea, no noble and
courageous thought has any meaning for a mortal soul.

A soul, therefore, which is capable of such things,must be immortal.

LIFE AFTER DEATH
The Teachers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, having Holy Scripture as
their foundation, teach that those who die in the Lord go to a place of
rest, according to the statement in the Apocalypse: "Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them"
(Revelation 14:13). This place of rest is viewed as spiritual Paradise,
where the souls of those who have died in the Lord, the souls of the
righteous, enjoy the blessings of rest, while awaiting the day of
rewarding and the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus...

About the sinners, they teach that their souls go down to Hades,
where there is suffering, sorrow, and groaning, awaiting the dreadful
day of the Judgment.

The Fathers of the Orthodox Church do not admit the existence of another place, intermediate between Paradise and Hades, as
such a place is not mentioned in Holy Scripture.

After the end of the General Judgment, the Righteous Judge (God)
will declare the decision both to the righteous and to the sinners. To
the righteous He will say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" while to
the sinners He will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And these will go away to
enternal hades, while the righteous will go to enternal life. This
retribution after the General Judgment will be complete, final, and
definitive. It will complete, because it is not the soul alone, as the
Partial Judgment of man after death, but the soul together with the
body, that will receive what is deserved. It will be final, because it
will be enduring and not temporary like that at Partial Judgment. And
it will be definitive, because both for the righteous and for the
sinners it will be unalterable and eternal.

SAINTSOur Church honors saints not as gods,
but as faithful servants, as holy men and friends of God. It extols the
struggles they engaged in and the deeds they performed for the glory of
God with the action of His grace, in such a way that all the honor that
the Church gives them refers to the Supreme Being, Who has viewed their
life on earth with gratification. The Church honors them by
commemorating them annually through public celebrations and through the
erection of Churches in honor of their name.

The holy men of God, who were magnified on earth by the Lord, have been
honored by God's holy Church from the very time it was founded by the
Savior Christ.

REPENTANCETwo factors are involved in man's
salvation: the grace of God and the will of man. Both must work
together, if salvation is to be attained.

Repentance is a Mysterion through which he who
repents for his sins confesses before a Spiritual Father who has been
appointed by the Church and has received the authority to forgive sins,
and receives from this Spiritual Father the remission of his sins and
is reconciled with the Deity, against Whom he sinned.

Repentance signifies regret, change of mind. The distinguishing marks
of repentance are contrition, tears, aversion towards sin, and love of
the good.

VIRTUEWe ought to do everything we can for
the acquisition of virtue and moral wisdom (phronesis), for the prize
is beautiful and the hope great.

The path of virtue is a path of effort and toil: "Straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way, leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it;" whereas the gate of vice is wide and the way spacious, but lead to
perdition.

SPIRITUAL TRAININGSpiritual
training (pneumatike gymnasia) is askesis for peity. It is most
valuable, "having promise for the life that now is, and for that which
is to come." The efforts made for the sake of piety bring spiritual
gladness.

Theophylaktos says: "Train yourself for piety, that is, for pure
faith and the right life. Training, then, and continual efforts are
necessary; for he who trains exercises until he perspires, even when
there is no contest."

Training accustoms one to be lenient, temperate, capable of
controlling his anger, subduing his desires, doing works of charity,
showing love for his fellow men, practicing virtue. Training is
virtuous askesis, rendering one's way of life admirable.

FASTING Fasting is an ordinance of the
Church, obliging the Christian to observe it on sepecific days.
Concerning fasting, our Savior teaches: "When thou fastest, anoint
thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy Father Who is in secret: and thy Father, Who seeth in
secret, shall reward thee openly." From what the Savior teaches we
learn (a) that fasting is pleasing to God, and (b) that he who fasts
for the uplifting of his mind and heart towards God shall be rewarded
by God, Who is a most liberal bestower of Divine gifts, for his
devotion.

In the New Testament fasting is recommended as a means of preparing the mind and the heart for divine worship, for long prayer,
for rising from the earthly, and for spiritualization.

INNER ATTENTIONATTENTION
is the first teacher of truth and consequently absolutely necessary.
Attention rouses the soul to study itself and its longings, to learn
their true character and repulse those that are unholy. Attention is
the guardian angel of the intellect, always counseling it this : be
attentive. Attention awakens the soul, rouses it from sleep...
Attention examines every thought, every desire, every memory. Thoughts,
desires, and memories are engendered by various causes, and often
appear masked and with splendid garb, in order to deceive the
inattentive intellect and enter into the soul and dominate it. Only
attention can reveal their hidden form. Often their dissimulation is so
perfect that the discerrnment of their true nature is very difficult
and requires the greatest attention. One must remember the saving words
of the Lord: "Be wakeful and pray that ye enter not into temptation."
He who is wakeful does not enter into temptation, because he is
vigilant and attentive.
PRAYER
TRUE PRAYER is undistracted, prolonged, performed with a contrite heart an alert intellect. The vehicle of prayer is everywhere
humility, and prayer is a manifestation of humility. For being conscious of our own weakness, we invoke the power of GOD.

PRAYER unites one with GOD, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and
highest.

PRAYER IS FORGETTING EARTHLY THINGS,
AN ASCENT TO HEAVEN.
THROUGH PRAYER
WE FLEE TO GOD.

PRAYER is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those
who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for
purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our
faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the
foundation of serenity,the root and mother of myriads of blessings.

HOLY COMMUNION The
MYSTERION of the Divine Eucharist that has been handed down by the Lord
is the hightest of all the MYSTERIA; it is the most wondrous of all the
miracles which the power of God has performed; it is the highest which
the wisdom of God has conceived; it is the most precious of all the
gifts which the love of God has bestowed upon men. For all the other
miracles result through a transcendence of certain laws of Nature, but
the MYSTERION of the DIVINE EUCHARIST transcends all these laws. Hence
it may justly be called, and be viewed as, the miracle of miracles and
the MYSTERION of MYSTERIA.
DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A PARTAKER
OF THE BLESSINGS CONFERRED
BY DIVINE COMMUNION?
DO YOU WANT YOUR SALVATION?
BECOME A TRUE CHRISTIAN,
HAVE FEAR OF GOD,
FAITH IN THE MYSTERION OF DIVINE COMMUNION,
AND LOVE FOR GOD
AND FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR.MIRACLESMIRACLES
are not impossible from a logical standpoint, and right reason does not
deny them. Natural laws do not have the claim to be the only ones, nor
are they threatened with being overturned by the appearance of other
laws, supernatural ones, which also are conducive to the development
and furtherance of creation... Miracles are consequence of the
Creator's love for his creatures.

A Brief Life Of Saint NECTARIOS
Metropolitan Of Pentapolis,
Wonderworker Of AEGINA

t. Nectarios, earthly name was Anastasios, as he was called, was from a very poor family in
nineteenth century Selybria, in Thrace. He attempted to board a ship to Constantinople to find
work, but he had no money for a ticket. The engines of the ship roared, yet it would not move
until young Anastasios was permitted aboard. En route, the sea once raged, but Anastasios dipped
his cross, which contained a piece of the True Cross, into the water three times, praying
"Silence! Be still." The waters became still, but he lost his cross. As the ship continued, a loud
continuous knocking was heard from beneath the ship. When they arrived at their destination, the
sailors found the cross stuck to the bottom of the ship, as if the holy Cross of our Lord led the
ship... When he was 29 years of age, he became a monk on the island of Chios. The patriarch sent him
to study theology in Athens, and he was ordained Priest Nektarios (when you become a monk your
name is changed), and later the Bishop of Pentapolis.

However, owing to jealousy and alleged
improprieties, he was removed from office, only to be rejected again in Athens and island of
Euboiea. He suffered as a pauper, but he persevered, and his integrity and his wisdom shone
through. The people of Euboiea embraced him. He became the Dean of the School of Theology in
Athens in 1910 and helped begin a convent and became a spiritual father with healing powers for
many throughout Greece. Ten years later, he was taken from Aegina to a hospital ward in Athens for
the poor and incurable. He gave up his spirit there, and they prepared him for burial. His sweater
was placed on the nearby bed of a paralytic, who suddenly regained his strength and walked. The
room, which has since become a chapel, was filled with a beautiful fragrance for many days after
his repose in the Lord our God. Healings are seen throughout the world to this day by the saint's
holy prayers. He is considered the patron saint of those with cancer, heart trouble, arthritis,
for those who are seeking a job, and epilepsy.

St. Nectarios lived from 1846 until 1920. On November 9th, (1920) St. Nectarios reposed in the
Lord. The Feast day for St. Nectarios is 9 November.

Professor John E. Rexine, of Colgate University wrote the following:

"Widely known among the
Orthodox as a great miracle-worker, particularly as a healer of every sort of disease, St.
Nectarios was a many-sided personality. He was a prolific writer, theologian, philosopher,
moralist, educator, poet, ascetic and mystic."

The above source on the lifeSaint Nectarios is from "THE ORTHODOX CALENDAR," Copyright 1995